GRIZZ’s ‘79 - 2WD BLAZER Challenge over in London, England. “~It’s not a Project~”

[Grizz1963]

So back to random midweek jobs.

Remember the front door porch, had a bush.

Not anymore. Thanks Galaxy.



Dig out the roots, planted another two shrubs next to it toward the right.

Mixed some cement.



Random mixed pavers recycled and glued in place, used the roil liberated from the stones previously to level up lawn.



And mixed stone into more cement and plugged the hole next to the drive where one invariably steps when parked up. No more muddy shoes indoors.



How bored must you be to sieve out stones, grass and soil on your driveway..... call it recycling


And another little job done.



In the mean time, back in South Africa, where lockdown means no alcohol or tobacco sales, the black markets are flourishing, as expected.

My brother had started out doing home brew in 2 litre bottles....... he has now scaled up to 25 litre containers.





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[Grizz1963]

And so the Corona virus and its fall out continues to screw up some people’s lives.

Changing the way we work and relax.

But nature seems to be happy, regardless of our issues.



Double headed rose in Mickeys garden, he loves his rose bushes.






It seems now certainly is the time to bring all those garden and housekeeping jobs, back up to date.

Mickey come knocking on Friday morning to ask me if I had an edging spade..... I had no I'd what it was till he showed me his mangled one.

Small, lightweight half moon, probably made for little old ladies to trim garden beds, not over eager guys changing their garden beds and laying brick edges to the lawn with cement.

So I did not have one to give him to use for removing the grass where he was reshaping the garden beds.

Instead, I stepped away from work for a bit and made a brace and welded it in place, then sharpened the spade and just for fun, repainted it red with some Poundland Red paint.

Mickey was very happy of course.

Straightened and Prepared



Grinding welds back.




Previously I mentioned that I was looking for a cheap used cement mixer to buy (Free is of course even better)

And less than 5 minutes after posting, @Johnnybravo replied and sent a couple of pictures.

“Needs a bit of attention, collect after 08.00 on Saturday if interested”


Of course I was interested, but I did not want to borrow a mixer, I prefer owning stuff, always cheaper to replace or repair for yourself, than a mates tools, as my own rule is [font color="e61972"]You bend it, You mend it[/font] so I asked how much he wanted for it, and the reply was along the lines of Take it, use it, if it self destructs, bin it.

Aaahhh, right, that works for me.

So the pics he sent:





Yup, I could work with that.

Soon it would be weekend and my first real trip in 8 weeks....... 25 miles each way to exercise.

Friday my lunch hour, after spending tea time fixing Mickeys spade, was spent 2.3 miles from home removing a rather large conifer at Sally’s front door with the Galaxy and its tow bar, that keeps coming in handy. Then removing it and bringing it home to my sidewalk where I knew the recycling guys would lift it straight into their truck.

It filled the rear load area.

Leaving the Galaxy needing a decent clean inside and a wash while I was at it.

and


Back to work again for more online training, testing, and strategising.

My colleague who is running a team development thing as part of his own development had this opening slide......

I had to take a pic.



Still, one should not complain, I am fortunate enough to continue being employed.


And to wrap this up.

From FB




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[Grizz1963]

Preparation is paramount

Or something like that.

Measured up the wall that needs replacing, 7.5 meters long and then up to 2 meters tall should work.

So on Friday afternoon late, Mickey, Sam from no 7 and I moved the old Shed Caravan that is full of truck parts away from Mickeys side hedge as the woodwork shed needs a new front veranda and new roofing felt.

Of course, typically it has exposed more work to be done.



2.8 meter Galvanised posts came from Germany over 10 years ago when @Oldbus delivered the Taunus Transit to me.

They will now be used for the carport as planned.



Not easily seen is the way the paving has collapsed over time, Mickeys yard is about 500mm lower than mine, and the soil was obviously not compacted well 9 years ago when it was done.



So this will mean lifting about 1 meter of paving along the boundary, digging out, compacting and possibly putting some concrete down, adding blocks to create either a low wall, or stable base for the paving to go back down.

Seems the list keeps growing.

Saturday morning early, before heading over to @Johnnybravo to collect the cement mixer, I decided to hack back the hedge hard while I had some,time.









How to maximise a wheely bins capacity.




More later.

Time for some woodwork and shed repairs now.

Later.



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[rgunlock]

Wow, you've been busy with the yard projects! A lot of work, but feels so good when you know you are catching up. Looks great!

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by rgunlock

Wow, you've been busy with the yard projects! A lot of work, but feels so good when you know you are catching up. Looks great!

Morning

It’s one of those inevitable things.... you always have to do yard jobs in order to get to others.

A lot of the stuff I am doing now is geared toward the carport I want to build.

Once the carport is up (May take a while) I can then progress in other parts and do a bit of a reorganisation to make life easier for the ‘66 restoration and possibly allow some other interesting jobs to get done.




So Saturday morning, I started early.

Insomnia and body aches have their merits.

Cut back the hedge as reported before.

Alarm set for 09.20 to remind me to lock up and head out to @Johnnybravo to check out his new machine shop and collect the mixer he had offered me.

35 minute unencumbered drive was the longest drive I have done in 8 weeks, and showed just what a pleasant and comfortable drive this Galaxy offers.

Johnnybravo getting on with the whole social distance thing after the House Elf helped him move the mixer from his Berlingo van to the Galaxy, leaving me to capture the load on film.



Along with the machine came a new replacement fan and cover for the electric motor, part of the “Needs some attention” message, needed some modifying to get to fit.



Had a restricted visit and shop tour with JB and the House Elf, who is both better looking and nicer (not yet jaded by life sucking) than his dad would admit ;-)

Amazing how much efficiency they have managed to bring to the shop through sensible planning and layout, with the Mezzanine level adding another 60% of useable space for machines and of course automotive storage.

Being that they are working alone, against the proverbial clock, we kept it shorter than usual, and I missed out on a coffee and cookies, so after leaving a case of Bud Lights, I headed home where work was not doing itself.

Back home, I carried on with cleaning and clearing up the hedge that I had cut back earlier.

Sally popped over by about 11.30 to help me unload the mixer and plant some sunflowers and green beans she had grown.


So first view of the mixer was not exactly encouraging.



After coffee and cookies with Sally, I started to look at the mixer barrel, and decided that a bucket of gravel and some water would be the way to go.



Messy cement and dismissive use in its previous life as a hire company (that had gone bankrupt) evident around.

Note exposed motor axle on left, that would be needing some attention.



The stand again, showed dismissive use in the past, with cleaning not a priority, ever.



Two hours of running it in various ways with changing content left me with the drum inside looking a lot better.

Lump hammer had to be pulled into service to break out a load of real thick concrete in the bottom nd around the paddles.


At one point when it became obvious that the stones were not progressing, I added some sharp metal edges and chain, which seemed to help, along with the the lump hammer.



And a sobering last thought at this point.

The cost of a new mixer online means the three or more hours it may take to get the machine back to where it will be an asset here when I start mixing and building is time well spent.




.

[Grizz1963]

Sally is a bit of a menace with her camera, but sometimes it does make me chuckle

Sunday early.



Back to random little jobs that steal time.

Fitting the new cooling fan to the motor.

I started by carefully filing out the inside to get it to slide onto the axle, fail.

So measuring the axle showed 16mm and fan15mm so one of the old large drills I saved years ago was ground down to 13mm to fit the chuck on the pillar drill.

Hey Presto !

Hammer persuasion.



Cover on, tested, all good.



Sally had been bugging me for weeks to strip back and paint the BBQ table made from the garden gate last year.

Unfortunately all the layers of paint and varnish had started peeling badly, having stood outside in all weathers.

So I told her she could sort it out.

Carried the table onto the lawn, gave her a steel brush and some fence paint......



Result.



Another Sally generated job, the BBQ I built 9 years ago has started to show its age.

https://forum.retro-rides.org/thread...ies-build-kent

So the plan was to strip back just the tiles on the work surface.....

Ooooppps.... mistake.



Suddenly the wood frames looked rubbish, so I tore apart what was built not to be replaced.



Managed to get repair sections in.

Ideally would have loved some resilient marble or synthetic all weather replacement material in place of the tiles, but will get that figured later.



Now the doors were clearly looking rubbish.

Guess they need replacing too. Took them off.



Repurposed and cut down to become floors to holes, will keep kindling etc dry.



Busy week ahead, though it’s Wednesday morning already So not much will happen with dy job stuff getting in the way.

Doors to make up next, once I find some wood to use.

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[Grizz1963]

Another Sunday afternoon job was to address more of the wear and tear from abuse to the mixer.

A bit of grinder and welding action resulted in what will hopefully be an extended life.

Both the paddles in the barrel showed holes where the welds had torn away over time, and obviously leaked out when mixing cement.

Started by cleaning them up and cutting patches to weld over



The rolled rim was broken and barrel torn and one could see the metal was worn thinner around the edge.

So I took a 6” nail and bent it, cut a 50mm length off the top, including the head to slide into the rolled rim.

The nails head would partly fill the gap and allow me to bridge the tear.



Aligned and kept in place with my extra fingers.



Gluing metal.



Camera menace



Barrel patches.





Rim.



And finally late afternoon, just because I am like that, I took a belt sander and ran the mixer and sander in different directions to clean up the barrel a bit more.

Then added some random Dulux paint I bought unidentified years ago for £1.00 for a litre tin .





Ready for work once all the prep is done and materials ordered in.


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[Grizz1963]

For the garden and nature lovers out there.

Cacti seem to be happy right now.



And next door in Mickeys garden.







76 years old and still cannot settle down.



So Mickey had to rebuild his one pond, again.

Half the materials are recycled, scavenged or found up on their farmyard rubble pile.





From Siberia, Stas is not particularly enjoying this whole lockdown thing.



But sacrificed animal always puts a smile on his and the family in laws faces.

[Grizz1963]

So back to corona maintenance fitted inbetween meetings about meetings and tests about tests.

After starting on the BBQ refurbishment, it was all downhill.

New door frames and doors because the old ones just looked, well, old.





Next up was using the stored wood from the deck rebuild last year to make up some new doors.



While doing all these little bits of work between doing my day job, other bits happened.

@PaulY dropped off a Chevy C10 cab lifter for Martin on his way to a business meeting local to where I live.

While he was at it, he dropped off a few chainsaw chains for me as the chainsaw they used to fit had been stolen in a burglary.

It was so surreal having my mate stop on the driveway, drop off the stuff like a dead body and drive off because of this whole Corona virus thing.

I felt wounded.


Sally texted a pic too, she was at her home and painted the chairs SawdustSteve had brought last year.

Ready for summer.



Typical sally, who seems to find me all sorts of jobs around here.......

Comment on the pic of the new door frames was “You need to clean the brickwork”



So pressure cleaner came up from the garage.



After



Then pressure cleaned the recycled decking doors. Makes a big difference.



And my painter..... working remotely.



Turned into a lot more work than anticipated.

.

[Grizz1963]

Doors completed and on.

Something missing it seems.



Selection.



Paint.



Nuts, bolts, weld.





Fitted.....

Swivel locks, handles.



And poo.....

Swivels fitted too close to the edge, no entry.

Reset, fixed.



At last.



And then the weather turned, perfect timing.




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[Grizz1963]

So day three of my weekend started with sally at my door by 08.00

Ready to get walking to the Thames river as low tide was 07.10

We did the walk, collected a few bits of driftwood, glass, and other stuff..

Loads of WW2 bunkers around this area



Too big a log



And even bigger



Sally also found a somewhat smashed iPhone 6S on the beach.
We brought it home, I put it on charge (She is an Android girl) and then turned it on, locked of course.
Around 8pm it rang, calling from London, the owners dad, was prepared to pay me for it, of course I said not a chance and told him I could post it or they could collect.
So I wrapped it in a shopping bag and left it behind a potplant, when we got home late Monday afternoon, the phone was gone, replaced by some Lithuanian chocolates and a hand written note.

Dipstick



The rest of her treasures.



Back to her place where I refelted her shed roof.

Unfortunately its spine is damaged and warped. So the job looks untidy, but it will keep the weather out.



Really awkward job, wrong ladder, too much reach etc.

But done.




In the mean time, later on, Dennis had pressure cleaned his gas station as well, and invited me for a drink.



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[Grizz1963]

COVID 19

I have decided to take in a second lodger of I can find one.

Loads of contracts at the local powerstation currently.

Needed a bit more fridge space

Someone 1/2 mile down the road put one out on Monday.

Today I knocked on the door and asked if I could have it.

Galaxy to the rescue



Needs a clean.



Stripped all the interior parts and into the dishwasher as it is good as sterilising stuff.



Free is good.

No idea what it would cost me new.

[Grizz1963]

Its clean and plugged in.

Seems to run just fine as previous ownet said.



I see £150.00 going into my vacation fund.

Others see scrap.

[Grizz1963]

Back to the Thames river, rebuilding a BBQ and other tasks.

The mobile phone Sally picked up.



Charging back home, clearly robust.



Having lost the beautiful 15 foot board before, I had my eye on another pice, to be used as the lintel of the BBQ



Headed up to the galaxy.

Readjusting straps.



Yes. It was heavy.



Loaded, right up to the dash.




Back home, unloaded.



While unloading, there was a noise, a beautiful noise out in the road.

Sally went to check.....


We had a socially distanced lunch and afternoon with friends Kevin and Teresa in Maidstone.

Came home with a pack of quarry tiles, almost enough to re-tile the BBQ



That meant that the weekend was over.

More late.

[Grizz1963]

So the last job on the BBQ refurb, was the job that started it all.

Lay out, plan, measure.....



Cut !



Mix a strong cement and fine sand mix.

Prep



I also wrapped the wood in klingfilm.....



Last job left for later today is to scrub cement stains off tiles, polish them and leave them alone after that.



Yesterday morning Mickey brought around a lifesaving tool.

Well, hopefully back saving.

For tearing down the wall at the garage.



Sunny outside again today.

More hedges to cut inbetween other prep jobs.

They look lovely when cut and tidy, but man I do hate doing it all, and I tend to do Mickeys as well, 8 foot tall from his side as his property is lower than mine.



.

[Grizz1963]

So Friday my day was filled with meetings and web based work from 09.00 to 17.00

I had ordered two tons of sharp sand, 6 x 25kg bags of cement, 4 x Maxi bags of 20mm Shingle and a pallet of 100mm dense concrete building blocks

My biggest concern was managing the delivery, as I wanted to get the bags put on pallets so that I could move them down to the bottom of the garden from the sidewalk where the delivery lands.

At 08.15 the hijab truck stopped outside in the street.

By 08.30 he drove off, having delivered.

Mickey helped me with a wooden pallet rested on some 100mm beams for the building blocks as they do not come on a pallet......

Nd I really did not want to have to wheel them all down little by little on the wheelbarrow.



Bloody heavy at over a ton, pulling uphill on the drive out front.



My £5.00 pallet truck bought years ago as the scrap recyclers, came in bloody handy.

All pulled through to the back of the house.



Next move would be downhill, to the garage where they would be used.



During lunchtime, between webconferences I got the precarious loads up on the pallet truck and carefully got them down the slope to the garage.

I was pooping myself that the loads would end up off the concrete strips and spread on the lawn.

After doing the bags of sand lith cement and stone on top, on my own, the blocks bottomed out and I needed to call Mickey over to help me shove and guide the blocks down the path.

Dece[timely heavy and too heavy as loaded.



And all done.



Weekend ahead will be garden, yard work and a lot of preparation for making foundations, and also relaying a meter of paving.

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[Grizz1963]

I got to scrub the tiles with a wire brush on Sunday, and they came up good.

Job done now, other than wanting to replace the large wooden lintel at some point.

[Grizz1963]

Amazing, how time flies.

Especially when you are busy doing stuff.

A lot of what I am doing in preparation for building this 6m Meter by 6 meter carport in front of the garage is appearing from the left field.

Stuff like having to cut back my shared hedge with Mickey some more.



Moving my steel cabinet of garden tools away, clearing the proposed wall to be demolished.





The woodwork shed is getting new roofing felt later as storm Dennis tore the top sheet off earlier this year.
Also painting it and of course clearing growth from around it.

Tight fit



Discovering an old nesting box that was habituated last year and having to repair it for reinstallation.





New position.



Painting the shed at Mickey side which is 2 foot below my ground level was interesting.





Front and left side Done.



More dismantling next and clearing the secret garden somI can get in there to paint and do the refelting of the roof.

[68Timber]

BBQ came out really good. You look like you've lost some weight too.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by 68Timber

BBQ came out really good. You look like you've lost some weight too.

Thanks, happy with BBQ and other odd jobs so far.

You are very kind, I have actually gained a lot of weight, being stuck here at home, indoors mostly, working online from home.



Quick photo dump today.

Dennis in St Louis has been getting on with his 1966 C10 on a 2015 NASCAR chassis, motor and transmission build.

They have seen unprecedented rain and bad weather this year, so shoptime becomes a natural option.

The dogs are always in the shop with him, and Son Adam’s dog Cinch hates thunder and lightening.



Loads of panels made, shaped and welded to bring the C10 and Race truck bodies together.



Rear end.



More parts, panels made nd fitted as nothing is off the shelf here.





C10 dash meet race truck body



During one of the few rain free days, the GMC Cabalero (which I believe is for sale) did some garden work.



Getting here.....



Little criminal......



Getting on with it.

Steering and pedal placement.

Note the custom made gas pedal from Andy Martin in Tulsa Oklahoma



Bedsides in for paint at last.

Note the wheel arches needed to be moved forward to suit the race truck wheel placement.



Visitor at the shop.

Chevy, going on Ebay over the weekend.



What $18k buys you in axle hardware.



Inside and outside painted.



Back home two days ago.

Fitted......



Note NASCAR exhaust poking out in front of rear tyres.



Hope to see more soon.

[Grizz1963]

Galaxy to the rescue, again.

Had it been the Focus, not so easy.

Went looking for some decent 100-150mm castor wheels at scrapyard to build a cab trolley for the C10 cab.

Failed.

But scored a free galvanised home gardening wheelbarrow for Sam the neighbour who usually borrows mine.



Paying for itself every day.

[Grizz1963]

No rain in St Louis today.

Dennis’s son Adam brought a new tailgate back yesterday from Kansas.

Patina build sleeper NASCAR truck getting prettier every day now.



Exhaust brackets today.

[Grizz1963]

So next job, done on Thursday, between meetings and customers.

Oh, and helping Mickey.

He loves a fire.



Windy outside, but I decided to start the long overdue refelting of the roof.

Having added that little piece out front changed,the dynamic of the job, plus making it a bit more awkward to reach onto the roof with the flat head nails.

This piece of felt landed on the floor three times before I threw a length of Used decking on it to keep it in place till I got the first few nails in.



When I had the shed built, I specified it to be made two lengths of shiplap taller than standard, in order for me to be comfortable doing woodwork in there.

Add a concrete plinth and it gets taller.



Used a ladder to get on top, and of course when I had done the last sheet, my back refused to let me get back on the ladder....

Managed to after a bit.



And finally, done.

Well, almost, as I need to remove the wall down the right side wall which has collapsed over time.



When I got back up at the house, there was a knock on the door and Mickeys wife dropped off two packages, one for me.

Sent by Craig’s wife and decorated by his daughter.

South African style rusks. (Check google)



Sally came over after 7.00pm as another potential lodger had messed her around, not actually coming to look when she was waiting to show the room and house.

I was knackered and ordered a SMALL PORTION OF FISH ND CHIPS.that Sally picked up on the way to me.



Yes, it really is a small portion, and we still did not finish all the chips.

Mr Fox got his share.

[Grizz1963]

It’s full speed now for Dennis and his NASCAR truck build.

With the bedside panels and tailgate fitted, more fettling followed.

Tailgate fitted.



With the amount of power that’s going to be put through the rear end, Dennis decided to add the rear spoiler to add to downforce and also stability.



Adjustable supports to fine tune downforce to suit different race tracks.



Lovely



Smaller units above the closing chains.





Rear will get closed in for aerodynamics and also looks.





Next job up for today is to go buy some new plugs.

You may ask why would you need power inside the truck.

Maybe I will leave that for you guys to answer.........



Pretty obvious ehh.

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[LT7A]

Hey Grizz, I enjoy your day-in-the-life-of posts. I have never been to the UK and it's cool to me to see the differences. And the similarities. Also, hearing about what you like about the US.

Where you live is beautiful. Thames, beach, fields, your home and garden. I can't quite get the layout in my head because there seem to be so many nooks and crannies but I like how you fix and maintain on it over time.

Sorry about the loss of Harley. Grew up with cats and have never been a huge fan but would have loved a cat like that.

A huge theme in your thread is the giving/sharing/finding things for others. Sometimes you snag something that I bet you would like to keep but you pass it along to someone who will like it even more -- outstanding.

I will now be following along. I forget to pop over here to the burban/blazer side very often, but will more now so that I can keep up.